Definitely, Maybe

3/4 stars

Before I start complaining, I should mention that Definitely, Maybe is well acted, good looking, has a better than average soundtrack and is a generally enjoyable way to spend two hours. Now that that's out of the way... I honestly kinda wonder what was wrong with the people that made it.

The film stars Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin; him as a father telling the story of how he met his (soon to be ex) wife, her as his precociously inappropriate young daughter who just took what one hopes is a very preliminary sex-ed class at school. Watch the movie and you'll agree, it seems likely that this point was thrown in just to justify the way she talks, and the things she seems to understand. That the story he tells is bizarrely inappropriate for a young child ended up being one of the things that bothered me the least about the movie. Anyway, so he introduces his tale as a "mystery love story," and spends the rest of the movie bouncing between three women (Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz) in flashback. His daughter will not know which is the one he ended up marrying, until... well, pretty much until he gets there. As she points out, the fact that he's about to get a divorce (and we never do find out why) makes the whole thing seem a little pointless.

I could see this being an okay premise (ignoring the divorce part), but the problem is that the main character doesn't seem to fit with any of these women particularly well, and none more than either of the others. Much like in life, there are nice things about each relationship, and not so nice things. Is that supposed to be the point? Then how do you justify the Hollywood romantic comedy ending that the movie sprints towards once the flashbacks are over? The woman that he ends up with seems chosen at random.

There are other problems with the movie as well. For one thing, it takes place mostly in the early 1990s, which should provide a lot of flavor, but the opportunity is mostly wasted. Another: Reynolds' character is sort of a hipster in the modern day scenes (he has The Flaming Lips playing in his apartment, and a Yo La Tengo poster on the wall), but in the past is what my father identified as a dweeb (he doesn't know who Kurt Cobain is). Does the movie bridge this gap for us? Not so much. And what about all the effort that was put into showing us the idiosyncrasies of the three relationships? There's a lot in the film that seems like it should add up to something, but goes nowhere.

I don't mean this to be a highly negative review, Definitely Maybe is completely passable entertainment and I wouldn't discourage you from seeing it if it's your kind of movie (and you can probably tell from the commercials if it is or not). But it's a 3-star movie that just didn't bother to be a 4-star one, even though all the ingredients were seemingly in place. Like the three relationships it portrays, this film seems like a great thing at first, but by the end it just doesn't click.

Constantine

3/4 stars

Keanu Reeves is at the same calibre of acting here as he was in The Matrix films. I mean that as a compliment, I don't have much patience for the unfair singling out of Keanu as a bad actor that's so popular. He has his troublesome moments (and with bad editing, that can happen to anyone) but he's still a head and shoulders above plenty of vacant, good-looking people in Hollywood. The action is also on the same level as the aforementioned trilogy, with some stylistic differences. I found the world of the movie, its use of Catholicism as a mythological backdrop both startling and engrossing. On the negative side though, the supporting cast could use a bit more depth and development, and the story seems more complicated than it really is at times due to muddled delivery. This movie encourages the audience to think, but the sheer spectacle at times seems to act as a reward for not doing so. Still, a gripping and inventive film.

Written March 26, 2008.